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How to learn Grade 6: Science

New York academic standards: Science, Grade 6

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1. Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects 6-8

  1. Drawing conclusions from evidence (age 9+): Report and present findings including conclusions, causal relationships, explanations, and a degree of trust in results using oral and written forms
  2. Drawing conclusions from evidence (age 12+): Identify patterns and trends in data, draw conclusions that directly address the hypothesis with quantitative reference to evidence, and evaluate the investigation by distinguishing between systematic and random errors and proposing targeted improvements

2. Reading Standards for Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects 6-8

  1. Repeated tests for reliability: Distinguish between precision (consistency of repeated readings) and accuracy (closeness to true value), use significant figures and standard form correctly, and choose and use appropriate measuring instruments to minimise uncertainty
  2. Classifying living things (age 9+): Record data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs
  3. Science Can Be Revised: Scientific knowledge is provisional — it is the best current explanation based on available evidence, and it can and should be revised when better evidence arrives

3. Obtaining, evaluating and communicating information

  1. Evidence Supporting Ideas: Identify scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments, evaluating the strength of evidence

4. Constructing explanations and designing solutions

  1. Simple Design Problems: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost

5. Using mathematics and computational thinking

  1. Comparing Possible Solutions: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints

6. Analyzing and interpreting data

  1. Tables, charts, and graphs: Construct data tables with correct headings and SI units, plot appropriate graph types (bar chart, line graph, scatter graph), draw a line of best fit, and calculate the gradient of a straight-line graph

7. Planning and carrying out investigations

  1. Controlling variables: Plan different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, recognising and controlling variables where necessary

8. Developing and using models

  1. Reading Weather Maps: Read and interpret weather maps, data tables, and graphs — identifying symbols for sun, rain, wind, and temperature; spotting trends and patterns in weather data over weeks, months, or seasons; and using data to make simple predictions

9. Electromagnetic Radiation

  1. Waves & Different Materials: Explain how waves can be absorbed, transmitted, or reflected by different materials, and apply these interactions to explain colour perception, sight, communication technologies, and the effects of different surfaces on wave behaviour
  2. Light Travels in Straight Lines: Recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines and use this to explain how we see objects and why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them

10. Wave Properties

  1. Wave Properties & Types: Describe waves in terms of amplitude, wavelength, frequency, and wave speed; distinguish transverse waves (oscillation perpendicular to direction of travel) from longitudinal waves (oscillation parallel); and use the wave equation v = fλ
  2. How Sound Waves Travel: Explain that sound is produced by vibrating objects and travels as a longitudinal pressure wave through solids, liquids, and gases; describe reflection of sound (echoes) and absorption; explain why sound cannot travel through a vacuum

11. Relationship Between Energy and Forces

  1. What happens when things collide: Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide

12. Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer

  1. Circuit vocabulary: Use technical vocabulary for electrical circuits — circuit, component, cell, battery, current, voltage, resistance, conductor, insulator, switch, series circuit, parallel circuit — and apply these when describing, drawing, and designing working circuits
  2. Energy stores and transfers: Identify the main energy stores (kinetic, gravitational potential, elastic potential, thermal, chemical, nuclear, electromagnetic) and the pathways by which energy is transferred between stores (mechanically, electrically, by heating, by radiation)
  3. Reactions That Release or Absorb Heat: Distinguish between exothermic reactions (release energy, temperature rises) and endothermic reactions (absorb energy, temperature falls), with everyday and industrial examples
  4. Energy can't be created or destroyed: Explain the principle of conservation of energy (energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred between stores), and describe how energy is dissipated as thermal energy to the surroundings in all real processes

13. Definitions of Energy

  1. Power: watts and energy per second: Define power as the rate of energy transfer (power = energy ÷ time, measured in watts), and compare energy transfer rates in different everyday contexts
  2. Speed and energy: Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object

14. Types of Interactions

  1. Gravity & Falling Objects: Explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object
  2. Universal Gravitation: Describe gravity as a universal attractive force between all masses, explain that orbital motion arises because gravity provides the centripetal force keeping objects in orbit, and compare gravitational field strengths on different planets
  3. Electromagnets: Describe the magnetic effect of an electric current (a current-carrying wire produces a magnetic field), and investigate how the strength of an electromagnet depends on current, number of coil turns, and core material

15. Forces and Motion

  1. Relative Motion: Explain relative motion — how the apparent speed and direction of an object depends on the observer's own motion — using everyday examples such as trains and cars passing
  2. Resultant Forces: Describe forces as vector quantities with both magnitude and direction, distinguish between balanced forces (zero resultant, no change in motion) and unbalanced forces (non-zero resultant, causes acceleration or deceleration)
  3. Newton's Third Law: State and apply Newton's Third Law: every force has an equal and opposite reaction force acting on a different object, distinguishing action-reaction pairs from balanced forces

16. Chemical Reactions

  1. Conservation of Mass: Measure and provide evidence that the total weight of matter is conserved regardless of the type of change (heating, cooling, or mixing)
  2. Physical vs Chemical Changes: Distinguish between physical changes (reversible, no new substances formed) and chemical changes (new substances formed, often irreversible), using conservation of mass to understand both types

17. Structure and Properties of Matter

  1. Material Properties Vocabulary: Use technical vocabulary to describe and compare material properties — conductor, insulator, thermal, electrical, transparent, opaque, translucent, soluble, insoluble, magnetic, flexible, rigid, density — and apply these terms precisely when selecting and justifying materials for particular purposes
  2. Atoms, Elements & Compounds: Explain the differences between atoms, elements, and compounds; describe the simple Bohr model of the atom (nucleus with protons and neutrons, electrons in shells); and write and interpret chemical symbols and simple formulae
  3. Pure Substances & Mixtures: Distinguish between pure substances and mixtures, identify formulations as useful mixtures with precise compositions, and use melting and boiling points to test for purity
  4. How Materials Change State: Explain melting, freezing, boiling, condensing, and sublimation using the particle model, interpreting heating and cooling curves to identify melting and boiling points
  5. Matter Is Made of Particles: Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen, and that this explains properties of solids, liquids, and gases

18. Structure and function

  1. Structures for Survival: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behaviour, and reproduction

19. Energy and matter in systems

  1. Naming types of energy: Name and use vocabulary for types of energy and energy transfer — kinetic energy, potential energy, heat energy, light energy, sound energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, stored energy, energy transfer, energy transformation — and describe energy changes in familiar situations using these terms

20. Systems and system models

  1. Earth's atmosphere: Develop a model to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere interact as connected Earth systems

21. Scale, proportion and quantity

  1. Scale of the Solar System: Use scale models, diagrams, or calculations to represent the relative sizes and distances of objects in the solar system, understanding that the distances between planets are enormously larger than the planets themselves

22. Engineering Design

  1. Building an energy-converting device: Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another

23. Human Impacts

  1. Human impact on environments: Use vocabulary for human impact on the environment — pollution, habitat destruction, deforestation, biodiversity, conservation, renewable energy, non-renewable energy, fossil fuel, carbon footprint, sustainability, endangered, extinct — and apply these when discussing environmental issues and human choices
  2. Natural Disaster Solutions: Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans, such as earthquakes, floods, or volcanic eruptions

24. Weather and Climate

  1. Climate Change Basics: Understand the basics of climate change: Earth’s atmosphere traps some of the Sun's heat (the greenhouse effect), burning fossil fuels adds extra greenhouse gases (especially CO₂), this is making Earth gradually warmer, and this warming changes weather patterns, melts ice, and raises sea levels
  2. Sun-Driven Weather Systems: Understand how the Sun drives weather: the Sun heats Earth's surface unevenly (land heats faster than water, equator gets more heat than poles), creating differences in air pressure that cause wind patterns, ocean currents, and large-scale weather systems

25. Earth's Systems

  1. The Water Cycle: Describe the water cycle, tracing water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff, and transpiration in plants, explaining how the sun drives the cycle

26. History of Earth

  1. Fossils as Evidence: Analyse and interpret data from fossils to provide evidence of organisms and environments that existed long ago
  2. How fossils form: Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time

27. Space Systems

  1. Phases of the Moon: Explain the phases of the Moon as the changing angle of sunlight on the lunar surface as seen from Earth, and describe how solar and lunar eclipses occur

28. Natural Selection and Adaptations

  1. How Natural Selection Works: Explain natural selection as the mechanism of evolution: heritable variation + competition for resources + differential survival and reproduction = change in allele frequency over generations
  2. Variation & Survival Advantage: Use evidence to explain how variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing
  3. Reading Cladograms: Read and create simple cladograms (branching diagrams) that show how groups of dinosaurs are related based on shared features, understanding that species sharing more features are more closely related

29. Growth, Development, and Reproduction of Organisms

  1. Inherited characteristics: Analyse and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms
  2. Plant & Animal Reproduction: Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals, including sexual and asexual reproduction in plants
  3. Genetic Mutation: Explain genetic mutation as a random change in DNA sequence, describe causes of mutation (e.g. radiation, chemicals, copying errors), and explain that most mutations are neutral, some harmful, and a few beneficial
  4. How animals adapt to environments: Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment and understand that adaptation may lead to evolution over time
  5. Evidence-Based Classification: Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics, using evidence to justify classification decisions

30. Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

  1. Food Webs & Interdependence: Construct and interpret food webs showing the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, explaining how a change in one population affects others
  2. Biodiversity & Resilience: Explain what biodiversity means, why high biodiversity makes ecosystems more resilient, and describe the ways human activity threatens biodiversity (habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, climate change)

31. Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems

  1. Communities Protecting Resources: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment
  2. Matter Cycling in Ecosystems: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment in an ecosystem
  3. Energy from Food & the Sun: Use models to describe that energy in animals' food was once energy from the sun, transferred through plants or other organisms
  4. Photosynthesis: Explain photosynthesis as the process by which plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen, and describe how mineral nutrients are absorbed through roots

32. Structure, Function, and Information Processing

  1. Senses, Brain & Responses: Use a model to describe that animals receive information through their senses, process it in their brain, and respond in different ways
  2. How the Body Stays in Balance: Explain homeostasis as the process of maintaining a stable internal environment; describe the main feedback loop systems (negative feedback) using blood glucose regulation (insulin/glucagon) and body temperature as concrete examples; and connect the endocrine system (hormone-secreting glands) to the nervous system as two complementary communication systems with different speeds and durations
  3. Cells Under the Microscope: Understand that all living organisms are made of cells and use a light microscope to observe, interpret, and record cell structure

33. Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation

  1. Waves & How They Move: Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength, and understand that waves can cause objects to move

34. Energy

  1. How energy travels around: Observe and provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents

35. MS. Energy · Systems and System Models

  1. The Particle Model: Use the particle model to explain the properties of solids, liquids, and gases — including differences in arrangement, movement, and spacing — and apply the model to explain density, compressibility, and the anomalous expansion of water

36. MS. Energy · PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer

  1. Heating experiments and Q = mcΔT: Plan and carry out experiments to measure energy transferred during heating, including using the equation Q = mcΔT, recording temperature changes over time, and evaluating sources of error

37. MS. Growth, Development, and Reproduction of Organisms · Cause and Effect

  1. Variation in Species: Explain variation within and between species, distinguishing between continuous variation (e.g. height) and discontinuous variation (e.g. blood group), and between genetic and environmental causes

38. MS. Growth, Development, and Reproduction of Organisms · LS3.B: Variation of Traits

  1. Offspring resemble parents: Observe that young plants and animals resemble their parents but are not identical, recognising inherited similarities and individual differences

39. MS. Growth, Development, and Reproduction of Organisms · LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits

  1. Chromosomes, Genes & DNA: Describe the relationship between chromosomes, genes, and DNA in heredity, including the double helix structure of DNA and the historical roles of Watson, Crick, Franklin, and Wilkins

40. MS. Growth, Development, and Reproduction of Organisms · LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms

  1. Human Reproduction: Describe the structure and function of the male and female human reproductive systems, and explain the processes of fertilisation, gestation, and birth including the role of the placenta